Dutch door

[Moses Yoder]

Has anyone made a Dutch door? This would be an exterior door on the back of the house, facing north, with a full glass storm door. It would be made of hickory, probably two 3/4" thicknesses laminated together to make a 1-1/2" thick door with 1/2" flat panels. Two panel wide on the bottom with single glass pane on top (no mullions). Anything to avoid or recommendations for how to do it would be appreciated.

[Stephen Musial]

The ones I've seen look like they're just a regular door sawn in half with a slanted rabbet on each door to block the weather. You might want to mock something up to get the middle rail right proportionally - you don't want it to look too skinny when it's open or too wide when it's closed.

Also check and see if any applicable codes apply - does the bottom door need to be a certain height. And think about security - the knob is on the bottom door and you want the top one to be able to close securely but still be able to open both quickly for exit in case of an emergency.

[Bradley Gray]

It has been 35 years, but I built one for a client and also lived in a house with a dutch door as a child. There is a piece of hardware called a door quadrant that joins the halves together to act as a regular door. I would find one of these first and build a door to work with it.

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[Moses Yoder]

I do not understand how the quadrant works, even after extensive Google searching. I was planning on latching the bottom half with a regular door knob and then locking the top half to the bottom with a bolt such as this one.

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[Moses Yoder]

This is a simple sketch of the door I have planned, 36 wide. The bottom door has a shelf on top with corbels for design and support.
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[peter gagliardi]

"Anything to avoid?" Yes! Hickory will not make a good exterior door!! I can't stress that enough!
Hickory has a lot of evils in it- it moves with the seasonal humidity/ temperature swings more than almost any commercially available North American hardwood.
This will lead the size differential cycling to destroying the joinery, and glue bonds- any and all of them!
It has minimal if any rot resistance, so any moisture penetrating the finish will quickly degrade to rot.
Don't get me wrong, Hickory is a very beautiful wood, and deserves to be used, but you need to examine it's working characteristics, and use it for applications that suit it's peculiarities.
Tongue and groove paneling is excellent for example, as it allows the wood to move as necessary with no ill effect.
A door is a fair amount of work, and the reward should be a thing of beauty that lasts.

[Bernie May]

Do not use the door quadrant. It works by trying to draw the two halves together by pulling the bottom half up and the top half down. For it to hold the two halves together laterally you need it to pull up and down with a fair amount of force. My wife picked it out and I installed it and quickly got rid of it. Over time it will ruin the door. This is not the kind of stress you want on the door. Decorative slides are much better and can be set to give a tight meeting of the two halves.

[Peter Quinn]

Skip the hickory unless this door has an engineered core and is very well protected by a porch roof, and then only maybe. As noted above, hickory is a basket case, not really suitable for entry door construction. We made one at work( Dutch door, not hickory) very heavy glass in top sash. Make the hinge jamb leg stout and make sure the hinge screws hit framing, shim it perfectly, perhaps use the grk hinge screws rather than nails, these let you adjust the jamb position. Because getting both halfs to swing correctly with even reveals is not as easy as hanging a single solid door. I never understood the appeal personally...keep the dogs in?

[Mel Fulks]

They were real popular around here in 1950s in the bigger ranch houses with basements. As necessary and obligatory
as a ping pong table, and "TV light".

[lowell holmes]

When I make entrance doors I use either vertical grade fir or quarter sawn white oak. Mahogany is commonly used as well.

[Rick Potter]

Just curious,

If you have a storm door, does that mean you have a screen door for summer? If so, what purpose does the Dutch door serve, other than aesthetics? I love the look, but if you need a screen door to block the bugs, that has always stopped me from making one. It bothers me because I have the perfect place for one.

No offense, just curious if I am missing something.

Rick Potter

[Moses Yoder]

I knew that hickory is not a stable wood but figured it would be close enough. The kitchen will be hickory, both mine and my wife's favorite wood. The only thing we agree on. I am thinking now that I will do quartersawn white oak instead for the door and jamb. I made a QSWO jamb for my front door, rabetted the door stop into the jamb and attached it with stainless screws.

The reasons for the dutch door are multiple. My wife loves horses, has been around farms and barns her whole life and loves the dutch door. That's one reason. Reason #2, I love craftsman style that shows off my skills and this will fit the bill. Reason #3, we have 7 dogs and they go crazy at night when they can see the coyotes or raccoons in the back yard that manage to get over the fence, plus cats in the day time. The storm door is the type that has a self storing screen, I will buy the same as we have on the front and we love it. The advantage will be in the summer we can open the screen on the storm door, open the top of the door and prevent the dogs from whining and barking at the back door and jumping on the storm door.

[John A langley]

Moses make the doors with cores and use 3/8" Hickory on the inside whatever's appropriate on the outside on the bottom panels make 2 back-to-back so they float independently and can expand and contract that way you can use your Hickory to match your kitchen

[Peter Quinn]

I knew that hickory is not a stable wood but figured it would be close enough. The kitchen will be hickory, both mine and my wife's favorite wood. The only thing we agree on. I am thinking now that I will do quartersawn white oak instead for the door and jamb. I made a QSWO jamb for my front door, rabetted the door stop into the jamb and attached it with stainless screws.

The reasons for the dutch door are multiple. My wife loves horses, has been around farms and barns her whole life and loves the dutch door. That's one reason. Reason #2, I love craftsman style that shows off my skills and this will fit the bill. Reason #3, we have 7 dogs and they go crazy at night when they can see the coyotes or raccoons in the back yard that manage to get over the fence, plus cats in the day time. The storm door is the type that has a self storing screen, I will buy the same as we have on the front and we love it. The advantage will be in the summer we can open the screen on the storm door, open the top of the door and prevent the dogs from whining and barking at the back door and jumping on the storm door.


This all makes perfect sense, my uncle had one to let the horses come to the door and keep the dobermans from attacking visitors. We have too many mosquitos her in CT to consider any door without screen, I'm guessing MI has there share too? One wood to consider for the door is a common grade of quarter sawn white oak. Its not a bad match for hickory with the right stain, can be more difficult to find common quartered, strangely few mills bother to cut quartered that isn't FAS, but it is around. Is the hickory rustic or more of a clear grade? Flat sawn white oak isn't as stable as I prefer for entry doors but it might fly and could certainly be done on an engineered core such as LVL's. Another option if you can really select the boards might be a quarter sawn frame, hickory panels. Grain and color match would determine if it worked or not, but I could see that working if you want to feature the hickory? We just used surface bolts to joint the two halfs.

[Mark Wooden]

+1 on don't use hickory unless it's laid up on an engineered core. And glueing up 2 pcs of 3/4" isn't a good idea for an exterior door as the two halves will move differently being in and out side. Better to build over a decent core; pine was used for decades; I've restored several entry doors that were laid up on pine cores and in good structural condition. Quartered or rift white oak will make an excellent door.

The door quadrant will be fine if you have 'hard' points- such as a brass screw- in the meeting rails for the two doors to lock up on, making it a solid unit.This makes an interlocking metal weather strip the best to use (although there are some very good vinyl product also) in the meeting joint. It should be hinged as one piece also.